If you need to keep track of funding for participants on NDIS plans, you can use patient cases to assist. This can help you to keep track of funding, period, and claims. You can set up multiple cases for the same participant who might have multiple support categories and/or funding periods in their plan.
Note that this is relevant to Australian practitioners only, as the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) is unique to Australia.
The guidelines in this article are based on the changes to NDIS funding periods which commenced on 19 May 2025. While we will do our best to keep this article up to date with any other changes, we would like to clarify that the information within this guide is purely based on what we know at the time the NDIS changes were made.
Please note that you cannot make NDIS claims through Cliniko, and this guide is designed to help you set up your account to help keep track of NDIS claims that are being processed externally. These are recommendations only, and if you already have a way that works for you with tracking NDIS claiming, that's great!
Details about NDIS funding and changes
On 19 May 2025, the NDIS announced changes to the way that funding for participants is changing. Instead of a one or two year plan with a set dollar or hourly amount for NDIS services, funding will be broken down into quarterly "chunks" over periods of the one or two year plan, but it may be customised per participant. If you aren't sure what applies in your participant's cases, we recommend contacting the NDIS for specifics.
The new plan for NDIS participants would outline the total amount of funding provided, and the schedule for how providers can claim. For example, let's say a participant on the NDIS is allotted $2000 over a three month period. As per the NDIS announcement:
"Funding periods will usually be set at three-months on the basis this gives flexibility to participants but also help participants manage budgets. This approach makes sure funds are available at regular intervals and supports consistent use of funding over the length of the plan."
Unused funding will rollover from each period to the next, but would expire at the end of the plan.
So, how can this be tracked in Cliniko?
Using patient cases to track NDIS funding in Cliniko
While this is technically a workaround, the patient cases option will make it easier for you to keep track of NDIS funding and where your participant is at in the funding period.
If you haven't already, you can set up NDIS-specific billable items. This helps to ensure that the items in the claim comply with the NDIS requirements. When creating an invoice for an appointment, you'll want to add the NDIS billable item to that invoice. If you have specific appointment types set up for NDIS participants, you can automatically link the billable items to those appointment types, which means they'll simply show up on the invoice once generated.
If you're unsure of what can be invoiced on the NDIS, you can check out the latest invoicing guidelines at ndis.gov.au.
There are certain ways you'll want to set up the case to ensure that it works best for tracking NDIS funding, and we'll go through that below.
Create a new case (you can do this from their appointment on the calendar, or from the participant's individual details page) and give it a name that makes sense for tracking this particular participant's funding.
Set the case Type as Maximum invoiceable amount, and enter the amount of funding the participant has received. Learn more about the Maximum invoiceable amount and what it means here.
Be sure to toggle the Referral to Yes.
Ignore the Medicare and DVA options.
Add the referring doctor's name to the case if required.
Use the Issue date and Expiry date fields for the funding period.
Add any relevant notes that might be useful.
Over time, add relevant appointments to the case to help keep track of where things are at. Invoices created for these appointments will automatically deduct from the funding set in the case.
Below is a screenshot of an example case where we're tracking a participant's NDIS claim/funding—in this example, they've received $2,000 over a three month period, so the Maximum amount that can be invoiced to this case field says $2,000. The Issue date and Expiry date are three months apart.
Using this example, you'll be able to keep track of the funding period (three months for this participant).
If you have multiple support categories, and/or funding periods already set in the NDIS plan, you can create multiple cases, setting the issue and expiry dates accordingly.
One caveat here is that there won't be an easy way to track any funding that rolls over from these NDIS-specific cases. We suggest exporting patient cases for this, as in the spreadsheet, you'll be able to see if any cases have an outstanding amount. You can then manually roll over any unused amounts.
If you have any questions, our support team is happy to assist! 😊 Just send us a message and we'll chat with you!